Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,594; 5,505,214; 5,530,225; and 5,591,368 disclose various electrically powered smoking systems comprising cigarettes and electric lighters and are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
The smoking systems referred to above are designed with the intention of providing the user with all the pleasures of smoking while significantly reducing the side stream smoke produced during smoking. The smoking system also allows users the added benefit of reinitiating smoking of a cigarette that has been partially smoked, thereby providing the smoker with the ability to suspend and reinitiate smoking as desired.
In the operation of the smoking system a non-traditional cigarette is inserted in a heating fixture and heating elements are activated to smoke the cigarette. As a result, condensates may form and collect on the heating fixture. The build up of condensates can affect the functionality of the smoking device and may detract from the flavor and overall pleasure experienced by a user of the device. Therefore, it is desirable to periodically clean the heating fixture of the smoking device in order to rid itself of the condensates that may have collected therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,752, issued Mar. 9, 1999, hereby incorporated by reference, discloses an electrical lighter that has a sleeve, which concentrically surrounds the cigarette heating fixture. The cigarette heater elements transfer heat primarily via conduction to the inner surface of the sleeve and indirectly from this heated inner surface primarily via convection and radiation to other component surfaces to thermally liberate condensates which are deposited thereon during smoking. However, activation of the heating elements may not fully clean the condensates located on other components within the device. A ceramic layer is deposited on the outer surface of the sleeve to electrically insulate a subsequently applied sleeve heating element from the metal sleeve except for an exposed negative contact. In an alternative embodiment, an induction coil for heating the sleeve is shown.
As part of the cleaning process, a cleaning unit, in which the smoking device is placed, may be used to aid in the removal of the condensates that have been liberated by the thermal cleaning. The cleaning unit acts in a manner that draws the volatilized condensates from the smoking device. In this process of removing the condensates from the smoking device a catalyst may be used. The volatilized condensates from the smoking device are drawn through the catalyst which breaks down the condensates into primarily water vapor and carbon dioxide. As the catalyst is heated the catalyst becomes more efficient. Thus, the use of inductive heating techniques to heat the catalyst during a cleaning cycle of the smoking device may enhance the performance of the catalyst. However, conventional systems for cleaning the smoking device with the aid of a catalyst have required separate heaters and circuitry for heating the catalyst, which can increase costs and the size of the cleaning system while reducing efficiency.